"The Championship is not an option" - I Love Football off-season and transfer speculation thread 2012

depends on yr pov, 'spose.

We got a very good midfielder we could have used a lot more.

They got a fee for a player who was about to leave on a free, and got him back a couple months later on loan.

His wages prob doubled.

Arry didn't do it for nothing, i'm sure.

One for the scrapbooks, that.

Saha was ok, but i mean we're 451 and he's no 1. didn't cost anything tho.

oh right, i thought there was a fee of some sort for Saha. That's not so bad then

p sure it was a free or a nominal

free

Mrs. van Persie (his wife):

"'Arsenal showed faith in Robin when he was going through a lean time, so we should not repay them by thinking about other clubs.

'Our home life and our children are happy in London.'

Mrs. van Persie (his mum):

"Arsenal love him and that`s a great incentive to stay. Arsenal are a fantastic club, They have no debts and Robin is idolised there."

aww.

Do what you're told, rvi.

he'll sign a four year bumper contract and get a three and a half year injury

well Mrs van P will be glad to have him at home i'm sure

he cd pick the kids up from school or something

Better than him signing a four year bumper contract with someone else and not getting a three and a half year injury. xpost

how!

sell, sell now, before he sols you up the river. You'll still get 20m and his stock can only go down

because he'll score goals and win championships with someone else and i really can't be doing with that again and arsenal don't need £20m as his mother points out.

He's probably getting a lot of "banter" from his team mates about his wife/mother running his life and he'll go to Spain/Manchester out of spite.

deems I get your point re his history of brokenness but getting rid of the best striker in the country because he might get injured seems a tad wrong for a club with any pretence at challenging for anything

20m plus his wages isn't sniffy money tbph

Sell sell sell. We should sell modric. If bale opens his mouth sell him too. Market price pretty much always favours the selling club, get him out get a few players in, what odds?

Ye'll never win anything under wenger again and ye'll never finish outside of fourth, why bother with any one individual player so much? If wenger has proven anything over the past seven years it's that selling key players has no bearing on the mission.

Well yeah, I think this has been the single point I've been labouring the most on this board over the past three/seven years that I've always felt has fallen on deaf ears. But that doesn't mean you actually WANT the best players to leave.

I'm not sure they finish fourth without RVP. Depends on the business of Chelsea & Spurs I suppose - or Man U sinking like a stone.

the russians offered 40m and nasri went for 25m so... selling for 20m does seem unwise

so be it, get price but sell

lol what point on deaf ears? that no player is irreplaceable?

the only question is is wenger capable of replacing departed players the way he once did

£25m is good money but £25m can also buy you mertesacker, santos, random korean bloke, arteta and a bumper new 50k a week deal for djourou

pienaar tbf like kranjcar was never going to be a good squad player the way he is a good player for everton, it's first team main man or nothing

i guess there's an art in spotting your kalous and o'sheas that goes beyond just talent

saha was a decent free but weirdly overused, arry vanity idk?

that 5-0 v newcastle is probably gonna be the high point of arry's life

lol what point on deaf ears? that no player is irreplaceable?

the whole "arsenal are fucked if they lose [insert name of star player that inevitably goes to barcelona/man city]" line that gets rolled out every summer that i've always dismissed on the basis of football being a team game, and that good teams make star players, not the other way round.

yeah... not so much deaf ears as basic simplistic truism that isn't worth acknowledgment

missed all the xps, sorry folks

truism that's tested at arsenal a lot more than's usual, tbf to upto11

i knew i'd stayed out of this thread for a reason.

awww

xp to onimo- not sure that spurs haven't just peaked for a while tbh

Yeah I think so too, I also feel that Man U are in the last throes of holding onto any kind of supremacy over the league, and not just because of City. Chelsea will surely improve. Everything from 2nd-5th up for grabs.

yeah this next year matters

it'll be city v united again far as i can see

arse/spurs/chels may be a bit closer to them but still squabbling amongst themselves ultimately

wenger's arsenal getting relegated after they lost anelka to real shows that they can't just sell their star.

wenger's arsenal getting relegated after they lost anelka to real petit and overmars to barca shows that they can't just sell their star(s).

wenger's arsenal getting relegated after they lost anelka to real petit and overmars to barca adams, keown, dixon and parlour to retirement shows that they can't just sell/lose their star(s).

wenger's arsenal getting relegated after they lost anelka to real petit and overmars to barca adams, keown, dixon and parlour to retirement pires, ljungberg and campbell to their last go around big paychecks shows that they can't just sell/lose their star(s).

wenger's arsenal getting relegated after they lost anelka to real petit and overmars to barca adams, keown, dixon and parlour to retirement pires, ljungberg and campbell to their last go around big paychecks henry to barcelona shows that they can't just sell/lose their star(s).

wenger's arsenal getting relegated after they lost anelka to real petit and overmars to barca adams, keown, dixon and parlour to retirement pires, ljungberg and campbell to their last go around big paychecks henry to barcelona ade and toure to city shows that they can't just sell/lose their star(s).

wenger's arsenal getting relegated after they lost anelka to real petit and overmars to barca adams, keown, dixon and parlour to retirement pires, ljungberg and campbell to their last go around big paychecks henry to barcelona ade and toure to city cesc and nasri in one summer shows that they can't just sell/lose their star(s).

omg arsenal fans are so fucking stupid

how could it be utd?

how?

i mean i know i said this last year and every year since 2003 but how could utd possibly finish in the top four next season with that squad of chumps?

like everyone else is just aggressively opinionated about stuff but this lot don't even understand the question xp

stupid because i am bored of this 'omg but where will they be if they sell rvp' thing? they'll be in the same place, in that good/mediocre/underperforming way they have been since the last year in highbury.

fergie zombie horde man idk. good vibe about kagawa if that happens too

top four would only be mediocrity if wenger ever bought eleven first team players at once- as is, it's v good considering he has a crop rotation approach.

Southampton in for Jay Rodriguez at £7m. I've never seen him play tbh.

I love the yearly predictions of Utd's demise. Bring it on

Yeah, I'm gonna give this up. I'm still staggered that they amassed 89 points last season. My anticipation of their demise will go no farther than predicting that they get 6 pts fewer next season.

I think their squad looks weak at the back (fitness, age, availabilty) and at the front, Rooney aside (Owen and Berbz being replaced by people who get games and score goals might help - or getting more out of Wee Pea).

Don't really see us getting a striker what with Berbatov barely getting a game this season. I can see Will Keane being promoted from the reserves, if only for Carling Cup games and the like. Kagawa coming in (Guardian reporting that a fee has been agreed) mixes things up at the front too. I'm happy enough with the defence although a left-back is needed for sure

SEVEN MILLION!!

SEVEN!!

i did like the look of rodriguez but that's twice what he's worth at most

fockin loco mayne

it does seem a bit steep, but it sounds like there were a couple of bigger clubs sniffing around him too so perhaps that pushed our offer up. he's a good signing anyway and we will definitely have the best strikeforce in the championship 2013-14 season.

does anyone know shit about him?

guessing he is one of those fairly quick champo winger/forwards who dribbles by kicking the ball about 10 yards ahead and runs after it

Odds slashed on Rodgers for LFC now, he's meeting the Swansea chairman for talks this afternoon apparently.

He could have at least brought Sigurdsson with him!